GM's Bob Lutz Talks Bankruptcy

Detroit (WWJ)  -- In its first full day of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, General Motors is making a sales pitch to car buyers nationwide: Give GM another chance.

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke live Tuesday with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz who says the company must prove to that it will still be around to manufacture and maintain quality products for consumers, snd this will be tough considering the stiff competition from their foreign competitors. 

Lutz talked about GM's difficulties to convince people to buy American made cars. "Some of our Japanese competitors are opening factories whereas we are closing them, they are hiring more American workers while we are laying off American workers. So who's more American?" he said.

Lutz noted that the underlying reason for GM's dillema is not because they weren't building good vehicles. Instead, it was the legacy costs the automaker had to shell out for health and retirement benefits. 

"We had cash pouring out of $103 billion over the last fifteen years alone which is a burden that none of our foreign competitors have to carry," said Lutz.

To emerge from bankruptcy, GM plans to show  the so-called experts that the company is building good vehicles.

"We've got to start getting people in the mainstream media to take a look at the reality of GM products and their competitiveness today, he said.

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